Harnessing wave energy from the oceans using wave energy converters (WECs) offers a huge opportunity to diversify Europe’s future renewable energy system. Although the energy conversion of this pre-commercial technology is not directly linked to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental sustainability over the full life cycle needs to be ensured for a future-proof large-scale application of WECs. Therefore, we present a cradle-to-grave full life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a generic point absorber WEC based on a fully transparent and adaptable life cycle inventory. Within the study we assess the environmental impacts of a single point absorber device, the influence of different hull materials, hotspots in the impacts of WEC components, and variations induced by different deployment locations. For a WEC deployed in the North Sea, we found a global warming impact of 300-325gCO2eq./kWh with periphery and 52-77gCO2eq./kWh without periphery, depending on the hull material. Using an alternative fibre-reinforced concrete material for the hull can reduce the impact across all categories by between 10% (marine eutrophication) and 78% (human toxicity, carcinogenic). In addition to the WEC itself we found that the electrical cable and vessel operations, particularly for maintenance, are significant contributors. These two elements will also be relevant to other marine renewables such as offshore wind and floating solar. Overall, this study shows potential for improving environmental impacts from WECs and identifies possible levers to achieve such a reduction.@en

With the rapid development of offshore renewable energy technologies, open source solvers for hydrodynamic analysis can become beneficial to meet the numerical challenges within the field, particularly when they are both accurate and computationally efficient. Hydrodynamic Analysis of Marine Structures (HAMS), a recently developed open source Boundary Integral Equation Method (BIEM) frequency domain solver has been shown to be a reliable, robust and computationally efficient for analysing single floating structures. This research enhances the capabilities of HAMS further by developing and incorporating a multiple body interaction formulation (henceforth referred as HAMS-MREL), which allows the solution of the diffraction and the radiation problem for multiple floating structures, taking into account their interaction. To evaluate proper performance of this new multi-body solver, comparisons are performed with semi-analytical solutions, as well as with the commercial solver WAMIT in terms of the hydrodynamic coefficients and exciting forces. The excellent comparison with semi-analytical solutions demonstrates the validity of the enhanced multi-body version of HAMS. In addition, the computational comparison considering lower order panels between HAMS-MREL and WAMIT (no symmetry) show that for deep water cases, HAMS-MREL is generally faster than WAMIT, while for the finite depth cases, it is slower. Finally, the functionality to utilize OpenMP parallelization within the multi-body formulation has been added, aiming to reduce the analysis time significantly for the finite depth cases, offering an expected improvement for the future.@en

One of the key aspects to consider before large scale de-ployments of wave energy converters (WEC), is to optimize the devices’ characteristics to improve wave power absorption. Typi-cally, devices with passive control are designed to have the highest efficiency in wave power absorption/production in the range of the most frequent wave conditions. In general, there is an intrinsic “trade-off” between the range of wave conditions where a WEC can operate and the operation efficiency which, in the end, is linked to the energy production yield. Outside the most frequent wave conditions, there is still a non-negligible percentage of oc-currences of more energetic sea states carrying high energy flux values. Given the specific design characteristics of a WEC de-vice, lower operation efficiency is expected during these stronger sea states, which is translated as a lower production compared to the available (usable) resource. In the present study, a multi-size point absorber WEC array, using passive internal control, is pro-posed to optimize wave power production at the array level. The main aim of this work is to verify the combined use of devices de-signed to work in the most frequent wave conditions, with WECs which mass and dimensions are defined to improve their response during stronger sea states. A comparison of the mean produced power is performed between a proposed multi-array and a single size one. This is done using 30 years of spectral wave data ob-tained from an implementation of the WAVEWATCH III model, while response of the wave energy converters array is simulated with the boundary element model HAMS-MREL. Preliminary results, using 10-devices arrays, show a promising increase in production from 60 to 140% when larger WECs are included.@en

Renewable energy project require long term climate information, offshore renewable energies in particular are in need of higher fidelity information as both power production, reliability and survivability rely on them. Existing open source datasets are too coarse, and often do not have the suitable physics based solutions to resolve high fidelity areas. While for power production different datasets may be needed wind speeds, solar radiation, ambient temperature, metocean conditions, the common thread is that all information provided by often open source free dataset carry large deviations that can be catastrophic or under-estimate power production significantly. This deliverable aims to bridge the gap and offer the EU-SCORES project three custom models wind, solar, wave and are then used for ultra high-fidelity assessment (sub 500m). The physical parametrisation are specifically calibrated with the need of EU-SCORES, and the models are intensively validated against in-situ and satellite information. This report describes the different models used for the construction of the open-source databases for wind-wave-solar information, from 1990-2021. All models have been developed, calibrated and validated against in-situ measurements, providing with the uncertainty levels for the hindcasts.@en

The economic profitability of future wave energy production along the Galician coast is assessed by analyzing the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) under different Capital Expenditure (CapEx) scenarios and two discounts rates (5% and 10%). Wave resources for the near future under the RCP8.5 scenario are downscaled using SWAN, providing up to 75 m spatial resolution in coastal areas. The study's goal is to enhance the cost-effectiveness by selecting the most suitable wave energy converter (WEC) for each location. Fourteen WECs operating at different depths are considered. This analysis reveals that the Atargis device boasts the lowest LCoE for 64.2% of the coastal area, mainly in deep waters, with an LCoE of 77 €/MWh. In addition, the Oyster and Wave Dragon devices exhibit the lowest LCoE for 12.4% and 15.0% of the coastal area, respectively, excelling in shallow waters and near the coast, with values of 50 €/MWh and 97 €/MWh. These findings demonstrate the profitability of wave energy production along the Galician coast, even when considering a more conservative CapEx of 3 M€/MW, resulting in a cost of 140 €/MWh. This conclusion takes into account the evolving electricity prices in Spain, which reached 0.2068 €/kWh in the second half of 2023.@en

A modified spectral-domain (SD) model is introduced in this study to address the nonlinear hydrostatic restoring force for heaving wave energy converters (WECs) with non-uniform cross-sectional areas. Distinguished from previous SD models, the modified SD model collectively includes the effects of incident wave elevation and buoy displacement, through the utilization of the multi-variate stochastic linearization method. The proposed SD model is verified against results obtained from a corresponding nonlinear time-domain (TD) model. Subsequently, a comprehensive comparison is carried out between the modified SD model, the other two existing SD models and the linear frequency-domain (FD) model. The nonlinear TD model is considered as the accuracy reference in this comparison. Various environmental and operational inputs, such as sea states, Power Take-Off (PTO) parameters, and buoy drafts, are systematically taken into account in the comparison. Additionally, the computational efficiency of each model is evaluated.

The results suggest that the modified SD model demonstrates significantly enhanced accuracy in cases where hydrostatic force nonlinearity intensifies, compared to the existing SD models and the FD model. Throughout the entire domain of the simulation cases, the maximum relative error of the modified SD model to the nonlinear TD model is below 5 %, while it is 20 % for the FD model and approximately 15 % for the two existing SD models. Moreover, the modeling accuracy of the FD model and existing SD models could be strongly disturbed by the variation of the environmental and operational inputs. Comparatively, the modified SD model is associated with much more stable accuracy. Nevertheless, the modified SD model only requires a modest increase in computational load compared to the FD model and existing SD models and it is still thousands of times faster than the nonlinear TD model.@en

Renewable energy project require long term climate information, offshore renewable energies in particular are in need of higher fidelity information as both power production, reliability and survivability rely on them. Existing open source datasets are too coarse, and often do not have the suitable physics based solutions to resolve high fidelity areas. The deliverable offers an in-depth resource assessment for wind-wave-solar renewable energy resources along the European Atlantic region. The duration of information cover 1990-2021 (including 2021), resulting in 32 years. This deliverable uses state of the art high resolution data for wind and solar, and introduces the European Coasts High resolution Ocean WAVEs (ECHOWAVE) hindcast, a new open source database for wave conditions with superior accuracy. ECHOWAVE covers North Atlantic European waters within the coastal shelf, from intermediate to shallow water relative depths and is specially adjusted to improve the representation of sea states within the area of interest. This translates as a reduction of the uncertainties in the estimation of some of the most important wave parameters for wave energy applications.@en

The Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converter has been shown to have high potential, thus rendering extensive development in recent years. In order to further accelerate its development, highly accurate yet computationally efficient tools are necessary particularly when studying the interaction of multiple OWC devices. This paper proposes a new framework for fixed OWC devices with an orifice, that uses the input from a high fidelity non-linear numerical model to improve the accuracy of a low fidelity linear numerical model keeping computational costs low. This is done by accounting for the non-linearities in the pressure-flow of an orifice in the input to the linear numerical model. Experimental data is used to validate the framework, thus providing an accurate and computationally efficient linear numerical model, that can be used for the preliminary analysis of fixed OWC devices.@en

The ECHOWAVE hindcast is an open source dataset specially developed for wave climate and energy applications within European Atlantic waters. It provides high resolution (∼2.3 km) fields of wave parameters and spectral data allowing for a detailed characterization of the wave resource within the coastal shelf. This is of importance for depths <200 m, where most deployment projects of wave energy converters (WEC) take place. Model setup and adjustments, leading to parameterization TUD-165, were specially aimed to improve the sea states’ characterization within the North-East Atlantic. The effects on accuracy of these adjustments and extensive validation, were done mainly comparing simulations with significant wave heights (H _s) from the European Space Agency CCI Version 3 altimeter dataset. Verification of other wave parameters and the spectral energy comparing with in situ measurements were also included. Results show that TUD-165 helps to reduce about 5% the H _s bias of the most frequent waves compared to T475 proposed by Alday et al. (2021), and an overall better performance than ERA5 within the North-East Atlantic. Compared to WAVERYS, ECHOWAVE performs better for H _s >9.5 m, with constrained bias between −2 to 5%. The accurate estimation of “extreme” waves is important to avoid WECs survivability over-estimations.

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The Boundary Element Method (BEM) based on the linear potential flow theory has shown to produce accurate results at low computational costs in numerical modelling of the hydrodynamics of Wave Energy Converters (WECs). WAMIT, Nemoh and Capytaine are some of the most popular frequency domain BEM solvers used in the response analysis of various WECs. Hydrodynamic Analysis of Marine Structures (HAMS), another open-source BEM solver gaining traction, has been applied to the analysis of single WECs considering rigid body motions providing highly accurate solutions at lower computational costs as compared to other solvers. This research extends its current capabilities to model structures with constraints by applying the generalized modes approach. Results presented include of a cross-model validation with commercial solver WAMIT, of the hydrodynamic coefficients and exciting forces considering flap converter. Furthermore, a comparison is shown with popular open-source solver Capytaine for the same case, since it has parallelization.

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Advancements in floating offshore wind energy are unlocking the potential of the coastal waters of Portugal for the installation of wind farms. A thorough evaluation of coastal effects and variability across different time scales is crucial to ensure successful offshore wind farm investments. State-of-the-art atmospheric reanalysis datasets fall short in explaining the coastal effects due to their modest grid resolution. This study aims to fill this gap by simulating a 31-year wind dataset at a gray-zone resolution of 500 m using the Weather Research and Forecasting model, covering a significant portion of the Portugal coast. The gray-zone refers to grid scales of a few hundred meters, where turbulence is only partially resolved, traditional turbulence modeling breaks down, and large-eddy simulations are computationally prohibitive. The newly generated dataset has been validated with buoy observations and compared against reanalysis datasets, demonstrating improved performance and highlighting its higher fidelity in assessing wind resources. Two wind turbine power curves, the Leanwind 8 megawatt (MW) reference wind turbine (RWT), which has been commercialized, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) 15 MW RWT, which represents future commercialization, are considered in energy production calculations. In the simulated data, the Iberian Peninsula Coastal Jet (IPCJ) emerges as a crucial factor influencing wind maxima, especially during the summer months. The diurnal and annual variability of wind energy resources aligns with the occurrence of IPCJ, highlighting its impact on wind energy generation. The energy production capability of the 15 MW turbine model is demonstrated to be significantly higher, attributed not only to its increased capacity but also to the stronger jet winds near the turbine hub height. Interestingly, wind resources are not monotonically increasing with distance from the coastline, but a tongue-like resource maxima is observed, which is attributed to the IPCJ.

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Ocean wave energy has immense potential and can provide at least twice as much electricity as globally produced now due to its high energy density. In order to efficiently extract this energy and make this commercially viable, Wave Energy Converters (WECs) need to interact with the resource in an optimized way for the expanse of sea states. This interaction is critical to power production by these devices and hence an accurate modelling of this is paramount. The Boundary element method (BEM) based on the linear potential flow theory has yielded accurate results at low computational costs when compared to complex Computational Fluid Dynamics methods. Hydrodynamic Analysis of Marine Structures (HAMS) and Capytaine are recently developed open-source BEM frequency domain solvers, originally created for large marine structures. These solvers have since been utilized for studying wave energy converters, though, for very few converter geometries. Owing to the implementation of parallelization in both HAMS and Capytaine, both these solvers could be capable for significantly lower computational costs as compared to the traditional BEM solvers such as Nemoh. This research aims to compare hydrodynamic coefficients and computational costs in Nemoh, HAMS and Capytaine for various WEC geometries.@en

Wave energy has immense potential and can provide at least twice as much electricity as globally produced now due to its high energy density. Apart from the vast accessibility of the resource, waves are more predictable and available throughout the year when compared to other forms of renewable energies. This makes the development and utilization of wave energy tech-nologies immensely important, in order to meet the renewable energy targets, an example of which is the 40GW by 2050 set as the offshore energy strategy of the European Commission. For wave energy to become a commercially viable power source, in-dividual wave energy converters (WECs) need to be deployed in large numbers similar to what can be seen in the wind in-dustry. Therefore, numerical tools simulating multiple inter-acting devices becomes highly relevant. This research utilizes the new open-source Boundary Element Method (BEM) based solver HAMS-MREL to analyse the hydrodynamic interactions of mono-array farms of point absorbers inspired by the state-of-the-art Corpower C4 point absorber device in various configurations subjected to waves in different directions. The obtained responses are used to estimate the power absorbed by the arrays in different configurations to obtain the Array Power Matrices, which can be used to study the variability of the q-factors in different sea states and different directions. Furthermore, the obtained Array Power Matrices are used to estimate the power absorbed by the array configurations in the North Sea. This can be a powerful tool for the analysis of the best wave energy farm configurations as it employs a computationally efficient frequency domain-based solver.@en

Mitigating climate change requires a variety of energy technologies and energy simulation approaches to evaluate the best possible system structures. Screening whether novel technologies are a viable solution for a particular country within a cost-optimised system setup is usually simulation- and time-intensive. This study introduces the novel add-on optimisation tool EP-ALISON-LUT for use in combination with EnergyPLAN applied to the test case of wave power in the case of Seychelles in 2030 and 2050 within a structured sensitivity analysis. The tool enables a high number of possible system setups and scenarios, including the import and domestic production of electricity-based fuels, to be modelled, allowing for an in-depth view of the system impacts of integrating wave power. The results indicate a limited role for wave power due to its relatively low yield, especially in 2030. However, in 2050, up to 500 MW of wave power capacity is possible with a lower or similar levelised cost of final energy compared to the reference scenario in 2019, which can benefit the diversification of the power generation portfolio. Thus, this novel tool is fast and effective in technology screening studies requiring a fast optimisation algorithm.@en

Nowadays, numerous governments have instituted diverse regulatory frameworks aimed at fostering the assimilation of sustainable energy sources characterized by reduced environmental footprints. Solar, wind, geothermal, and ocean energies were subject to extensive scrutiny, owing to their ecological merits. However, these sources exhibit pronounced temporal fluctuations. Notably, ocean dynamics offer vast energy reservoirs, with oceanic waves containing significant amounts of energy. In the Central American Pacific context, the exploration of wave energy resources is currently underway. Accurate numerical wave models are required for applied studies such as those focused on the estimation of exploitable wave power; and even more so in Central American region of the Pacific Ocean where existing numerical models simulations have so far relied on coarse resolution and limited validation field data. This work presents a high-resolution unstructured wave hindcast over the Central American Pacific region, implemented using the third-generation spectral wave model WAVEWATCH III over the period between 1979 and 2021. The results of the significant wave height have been bias-corrected on the basis of satellite information spanning 2005 to 2015, and further validation was performed using wave buoy and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) records located in the nearshore region of the Central America Pacific coast. After correction and validation of the wave hindcast, we employed the dataset for the evaluation and assessment of wave energy and its possible exploitation using different wave energy converters (WECs). This evaluation addressed the need to diverse the energy portfolio within the exclusive economic zones of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador in a sustainable manner. Moreover, a comprehensive analysis was carried out on the advantages of harnessing wave energy, juxtaposed with the imperative of regulatory frameworks and the current dearth of economic and environmental guidelines requisite for development within the region.

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Climate change is driving the adoption of sustainable energy, with low-cost solar photovoltaics and wind power at the forefront. However, land-constrained regions and islands have a limited onshore renewable energy potential. Wave power may prove useful for such regions, supported by growing literature in the field. This study delves into wave power's techno-economic potential, addressing a gap in previous assessments focused solely on theoretical or technical prospects. Utilising hourly wave data and a wave energy converter manufacturer's power matrix, global wave electricity yield is estimated. Considering projected costs, levelised cost of electricity is used to gauge economic viability. Although wave power is currently expensive, the results suggest that it could become cost-competitive with offshore wind power in the 2030s, with levelised cost of electricity below 70 €/MWh by 2035 in areas with good wave energy resources. Finally, the paper contributes openly accessible, hourly capacity factor data of global wave power generation, empowering further energy system modelling research. This study paves the way for informed decision-making on wave power's role in a diversified, sustainable energy future.

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In order to accelerate the transition from carbon fuels to renewable energy sources, it is essential to extend our knowledge of the resources’ availability to further improve or adjust the design of extraction devices. In the present paper, a first characterization of the tidal stream resource along the coast of The Netherlands is performed using a high-resolution unstructured grid implementation of the Thetis model. Extensive validation of the sea surface elevations was done by comparing with existing networks of tide gauges in the North Sea. The simulations from this study show that the highest tidal current intensities are generated mainly at Den Helder and Oost Vlieland, reaching values >1.5 m s−1 and power density estimates that are most frequently close to 300 W m−2 and that can reach values ≥ 900 W m−2. Given the relatively reduced depths where these ‘‘hot spots’’ are found, most existing stream turbines will require further development to operate. Nevertheless, the existence of higher current intensities zones, along a commonly considered ‘‘low energy’’ coast, opens the door to include the tidal stream resource in near future plans to diversify the energy supply in The Netherlands.@en

To date there is a wide range of wave reanalysis and hindcasts available to the scientific and engineering community which are commonly used for different applications, including downscaling or the estimation of the wave energy resource. These long datasets have been created using different combinations of forcing fields, physical parameterizations, and numerical choices (like spatial and spectral resolution). All these elements have a direct effect on the accuracy of the wave models’ output and thus, they are one of the main reasons for the differences between these products. In the present study we analyze the significant wave heights and peak periods characteristics from a selection of global datasets. We additionally include results from a hindcast created using the WAVEWATCH III model, with adjustments specially aimed to reduce uncertainties of the wave energy resource along the Atlantic coasts of Europe. Models’ output is compared with buoys and altimeter data from the latest ESA (European Space Agency) CCI Sea State V3 product. Preliminary validation of the hindcast we have generated for the North Atlantic already show an important bias reduction for wave heights in the 2.5 to 11.5 range compared to ERA5 wave product. Using the relevant wave parameters, we estimate the power density and quantify the differences between databases. Then, based on scatter diagrams obtained from the joint distributions of significant wave height and peak period, the differences in the power captured by a point absorber wave energy converter (WEC) related to different wave data sources will be quantified.

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